Ref cursors from functions

Question

This may be old hat to some of you but can I have a ref cursor as the return value of a stored function? I hate having to return it as an out parameter of a procedure and I was wondering if this is at all possible with or without ODP.NET?

Answer 1

There is not much difference for parameter binding for stored procedure or stored function. A stored function return type is bound as a stored procedure OUT parameter with the exception of ParameterDirection. ParameterDirection for a stored procedure OUT parameter is ParameterDirection.Output but ParameterDirection.ReturnValue for a function return type.
// Stored procedure OUT parameter
prm.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
// Stored function return parameter
prm.Direction = ParameterDirection.ReturnValue;
You can use CommandType as CommandType.StoredProcedure for both the cases. If you want to use the exact text, you can use CommandType as CommandType.Text and specify the complete text.
// Stored procedure
cmd.CommandText = "SP1";
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
OR
cmd.CommandText = "begin SP1(:prm1, :prm2); end;";
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
// Stored function
cmd.CommandText = "SP1";
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
OR
cmd.CommandText = "begin :prm1 := SP1(:prm2); end;";
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
where prm1 is the function return type.
Hope it helps.